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Understanding Culture
Society, and Politics
Quarter 3 – Module 4:
The Importance of Cultural Relativism
in Attaining Cultural Understanding

Self-Learning Module

Copyright Page

“Una sa tanan, BATA: Buligan, Amligan, Tudluan, Alalayan!”

DIVISION OF BACOLOD CITY

Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics - Grade 11
Self-Learning Module
Quarter 3 - Module 4 – Explain the Importance of Cultural Relativism in
Attaining Cultural Understanding
First Edition, 2020

Republic Act 8293, section 176 states that: No copyright shall subsist in any work
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Published by the Department of Education - SDO Bacolod City

SDS Gladys Amylaine D. Sales, CESO VI
ASDS Michell L. Acoyong. CESO VI

Development Team of the Self Learning Module

Writer: Mary Grace F. Dagu-ob

Editor: Argonne Robert A. Ablanque
Reviewer: Pinky Pamela S. Guanzon
Illustrator: Luna Lou D. Beatingo
Layout Artist: Mary Grace N. Prologo
Management Team:
Janalyn B. Navarro
Pinky Pamela S. Guanzon
Ellen G. Dela Cruz
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Office Address: Rosario-San Juan Sts., Bacolod City 6100
Telefax: (034) 704-2585
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 11
Understanding Culture,
Society, and Politics 1
Quarter 3 – Module 4:
The Importance of Cultural
Relativism in Attaining Cultural
Understanding

This instructional material was collaboratively developed and reviewed

by educators from the Public Schools in the Division of Bacolod City.

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 Introductory Message

For the facilitator:

This Self-Learning Module is a Division Initiated Learning Materials in

Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics which is intended for the learners of the
Division of Bacolod City using distance learning modality. Learners who could not
afford online or face-to-face learning can utilize this module. It includes a learner-
friendly pre-test, self-check exercises, additional activities, and other learning
instructions intended to help learners learn even teachers and learner are
geographically remote from each other. This covers topics in Grade 11 in the 3rd
Quarter, Second Semester with corresponding learning activities for learners to
achieve the most essential learning competencies and lesson objectives. Moreover,
each exercise in this module is designed for independent learning and practice.
However, ensure that the learners’ parents, elder siblings, guardians or relatives at
home will guide and support them as they accomplish its given tasks.

Furthermore, explain to students that taking the tests diligently will allow them
to learn their lessons for their academic progress. Most importantly, remind them to
answer the given activities on a separate answer sheet and handle this module with
utmost care.

For the learner:

This Self-Learning Module (SLM) is a learner-friendly learning material in

Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics which is specially designed for your
learning needs and progress. Your patience and dedication in reading and
answering its learning exercises will help you successfully cope with lessons. You
are free to ask assistance from your teachers, parents, siblings, friends, and family
members whom you think can help you best. Read each lesson carefully and follow
the instructions for your activities after reading.

Remember to answer the given exercises in a separate sheet of paper. When

you are done, kindly return it to your teacher to check and evaluate your level of
competency.

Good luck and God bless.

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Parts of the Self-Learning Module

The following are the parts of this module that will help you finish your tasks.
Read the following descriptions below to better understand each part.

This part will be your guide to learn in the

I Need To Know specific lessons specifically your skills and
competencies.

This contains a 10-item pre-test that will

I Will Check On This check what you already know.

This section will give you the topic,

information and concepts as a brief
Lesson Overview discussion for you to learn.

It is in this part that the new lesson will be

introduced to you in different ways: a story, a
I Will Do This poem, a problem opener, an activity, or a
situation. You will be given specific
instructions on how to go about the activity.

In this part helps you generalize your

I Learned This understanding of the concepts. This includes
a short fill-in the blanks summary of the topic.

This section includes an activity or exercises

I Apply This that will help you apply your knowledge into
real-life situations
This is composed of 10-item exercises to
I Test Myself assess if you have attained the learning
competency.

References List of all resources used in developing this

module.

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 Understanding Culture,
Week 1 Society, and Politics
Quarter 3-Module 4
Learning Competency:

Explain the importance of Cultural Relativism in attaining cultural understanding

I Need To Know

This module was designed and written with you in mind. It is here to help you explain
the importance of Cultural Relativism in attaining cultural understanding. The
scope of this module allows you to use it in many different learning situations. The
language used recognizes the diverse vocabulary level of students. The lessons are
arranged to follow the standard sequence of the course. But the order in which you read
them can be changed to correspond with the module you are now using.

After going through this module, you are expected to

a. describe Cultural Relativism
b. demonstrate a holistic understanding of culture and society
c. value cultural heritage and express pride of place without being
ethnocentric.

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 I Will Check On This

Direction: Read the statements carefully. Write the answer on a separate sheet.

1. What do you call a group of individuals sharing a common culture, geographical

location and government?
A. society B. culture C. politics D. power
2. Which term refers to the set of beliefs, ideas, values, practices, knowledge,
history and shared experiences, attitudes, as well as material objects and
possessions accumulated over time and shared by the members of society?
A. society B. culture C. politics D. government
3. Which of the following is used to describe the shared ideas, norms, and
principles that provide members of society the standards that pertain to what is
right or wrong, good or bad, desirable or undesirable.
A. norms B.mores C. values D. laws
4. What do you call a set of symbols that enables members of society to
communicate verbally and non-verbally?
A. language C. operators
B. characters D. symbols
5. Which term refers to the things that convey meaning or represent an idea?
A. picture B.language C. symbols D. caricature
6. What do you call a position that everything about the other culture is wrong,
unreasonable, detestable and even wicked?
A. enculturation C. xenocentrism
B. chauvinism D. socialization
7. Which term refers to a particular circumstance of a certain culture and is defined
by location, weather, time and other factors?
A. subject C. object
B. context D. approach
8. What do you call a view that one’s own culture is better than anyone else’s
culture?
A. Cultural Relativism C. multiculturalism
B. Ethnocentrism D. xenocentrism
9. What is that belief which recognizes and accepts the cultural differences between
societies?
A. Cultural Relativism C. multiculturalism
B. Ethnocentrism D. xenocentrism
10. Which is not a response in the practice of Cultural Relativism?
A. appreciation C. bullying
B. acceptance D. equality

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 Lesson Overview

The present world consists of the variety and unique cultures. Each culture differs
from another as each defines reality differently. The similarities and differences of each
cultures determine the way the people interact with each other. Some people find it
difficult to get along with or understand other people’s way of seeing, thinking and doing.
What is more, each group tends to make a generalization to other people’s cultures and
customs based on their own cultural norms.

Whose culture is really the best? Members of the particular society have the
tendency to regard its culture as the best and superior compared to another society.
Each group takes pride of its own culture and develops a strong foundation of ethnicity
and cultural identity. People may assert their folkways as the only right and proper
custom and regard others as improper and uncivilized. Some would claim that that they
are the only true religion and understating other religion as false.

Cultural Relativism is viewing the belief, actions and practices of a culture from his
own viewpoint. In other words, an individual person’s belief and activities should be
understood by others in terms of that individual’s own culture. This principle was
established as self-evident in anthropological research by Franz Boas in the first few
decades of the twentieth century and later was popularized by his students. Boas first
articulated the idea in 1887. In Cultural Relativism, what is right or wrong, what is
acceptable or unacceptable, what is normal or peculiar is seen not according to our own
standard, rather, we should seek to understand how others would see, value and act
according to their cultural context. What is considered moral in one society, may be
considered immoral in another. No one has the right to judge another society’s customs.
Cultural relativist believe that all cultures are worthy in their own right and are of equal
value.

Cultural Relativism made us aware of the beauty and value of other culture. We
become more tolerant and charitable of other people’s culture and realize that we may be
blinded by our own cultural prejudices. If Ethnocentrism believes that one’s cultural group
is centrally more important and superior to others, Cultural Relativism believes that
culture must be viewed and analyzed on their own terms. Consequently, before we say
anything about other people’s culture, it is good to know and understand the nature and
characteristics of societies in their respective cultures.

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 I Will Do This

Direction: Read the following selection below.

When people find cultural practices and values not their own as disturbing and
threatening, that can be regarded as Ethnocentrism. A literal meaning of
Ethnocentrism is the regard that one’s own culture and society is the center of
everything and therefore far more superior that others (Kottak 2012: 39; Eriksen
2001:7). It is understandable that people laud and hold importance to the cultural
values that were taught them by their parents, elders, and other institutions of their
society. The problem is when a person or groups of people regard their own society’s
set of cultural values as the only agreeable, acceptable, and highly respectable set of
convictions. Such a perspective can harden into chauvinism, a position that
everything about the other culture is wrong, unreasonable, detestable, and even
wicked. From this perspective, the practices and institutions of people from other
societies are regarded as inferior, less intelligent, and even vicious. An ethnocentric
attitude can be an obstacle to understanding each other culture and foster tensions
within or between societies.

The concept of Cultural Relativism underscores the idea that the culture in
every society should be understood and regarded on its own terms. Societies are
qualitatively different from one another, such that each one has its own “unique inner
logic” (Ericksen 2001:14). Cultural traits can only be known and valued in the context
of the society by which they emerge and are practiced. Cultural Relativism promotes
the idea that a society has to be viewed from the inside so that inner logic be better
explained. A society’s idea of a good life will not likely be shared by another society
that interprets the notion of “good” from a sharply different social perspective. In other
words, each society has a different yardstick in appreciating the values of its own
cultural trait. Cultural Relativism, however, can be regarded as flip side of
Ethnocentrism. The concept of Cultural Relativism is more analytical and
methodological rather than being a moral principle. Anthropologists applied the
concept of cultural relativity in investigating and comparing society without declaring
one being better or more preferable to the other.

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 Moreover, appreciating and accepting the uniqueness of one society’s cultural
trait does not mean that universal human moral traits of right or wrong no longer
apply. For instance, cultural trait that promotes subjugation of women by hurting or
killing them do not necessarily mean that they are right by virtue of one society’s
inner logic. There are underlying patterns of human cultural traits that are common
and universally acceptable to humanity. The violence subjugation and elimination of
human life or traits are broadly unacceptable to the rest of humanity.
Through a relativist approach consciously balanced by a universalist
understanding of what is humanely acceptable, the dangers of Ethnocentrism can be
addressed.

Guide Questions:

a. What is Ethnocentrism? What are its effects in the society and other group
of society?
b. What is Cultural Relativism? What are its effects in the society and other
group of society?

Directions: Fill the table with answers based on what you have read.

Approaches Definition Effects in the Society

Ethnocentrism

Cultural Relativism

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 I Learned This

Direction: Indicate the things you have learned in this module (knowledge); the things
you have realized and appreciated (attitude) and the things you have
discovered and wanted to do more(skills). Place or write those things inside
the box.

Things I have Learned Things I have realized Things I have

and appreciated discovered and
• ____________________ wanted to do more
• ____________________
____________________ ____________________ • ____________________
____________________ ____________________ ____________________
____________________ ____________________ ____________________
____________________ ____________________ ____________________
____________________ ____________________ ____________________
____________________ ____________________ ____________________
____________________ ____________________ ____________________
____________________ ____________________ ____________________
____________________ ____________________ ____________________
____________________ ____________________ ____________________
____________________ ____________________ ____________________
____________________ ____________________ ____________________
____________________ ____________________ ____________________
____________________ ____________________ ____________________
____________________

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 I Apply This
Direction: React on the following situations in column A. In column B, put a ✔ if the
situation speaks about Cultural Relativism and put an X if it speaks about
Ethnocentrism. While in column C, write a brief explanation. Write your
answer in a separate sheet of paper.

A B C

1. John, a Catholic meet, Ahlmed, a

Muslim along with his two wives.
John was thinking that this man is
immoral because he has two wives.
This is not allowed in Catholicism.

2. My religion is the only religion which

embodies the truth.

3. Lidia, a Filipina, was fortunate to

visit France. In one occasion, she
was invited to a dinner and noticed
that wine is casually serve even on
teens. “Drinking wine is not good for
teens, this should not be tolerated,”
she said to herself.

4. Two city girls in conversation.

“Look at that girl, the way she
dresses, and listen to her accent.”
“Obviously, she is from the
‘province’.”

5. One American missionary gladly

said that she likes Filipino food,
particularly “dinuguan” and grilled
chicken feet.

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 I Test Myself

I. Direction. Assess the statements in column A. In column B, write R if the statement

is true about Cultural Relativism and E if the statement is true about
Ethnocentrism. Write your answer on a separate sheet.

A B

1. It is the regard that one’s own culture and society is the center
of everything and therefore far more superior than others.

2. It is an idea that the culture in every society should be

understood and regarded on its own terms.

3. Societies are qualitatively different from one another, such that

each one has its own “unique inner logic.”

4. It is understandable that people laud and hold importance to

the cultural values that were taught them by their parents,
elders, and other institutions of their society.

5. Cultural traits can only be known and valued in the context of

the society by which they emerge and are practiced.

6. It promotes the idea that a society has to be viewed from the

inside so that so that inner logic can be better explained.

7. This kind of attitude can be an obstacle to understanding each

other culture and foster tensions within or between societies.

8. From this perspective, the practices and institutions of people

from other societies are regarded as inferior, less intelligent,
and even vicious.

9. This concept is more analytical and methodological rather than

being a moral principle.

10. It promotes that each society has a different yardstick in

appreciating the value of its own cultural trait.

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II. Direction: In the light of our understanding of Cultural Relativism, is there such a
thing as a best culture? Why?

References

https:lrmds.deped.gov.ph/download/11927

hhtps:lrmds.deped.gov.ph/download/12240

Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics Teacher’s Guide

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For questions and comments, write or call:
Department of Education – SDO Bacolod City

Office Address: Rosario-San Juan Sts., Bacolod City 6100

Telefax: (034)704-2585
E=mail Address: Bacolod.city@deped.gov.ph